Lord of Rot

Noon.

Leech and Kuer went to the luncheon first to fill their stomachs.

The meal could hardly be called lavish: a few roasted chickens, some sliced bread, and two bowls of dates.

Suddenly, a clamor arose from outside.

”I hear some Baron from the East Gorge is here?”

”I also heard he’s won a few battles. The kid’s barely grown any hair on his chin. Those East Gorge pansies are probably just blowing smoke.”

”Hahaha, if you ask me, the only battles he’s winning are with women! Isn’t there some ’holy land’ in the East Gorge called Iron Stone City? If I went there, I’d be winning every battle too!”

”I hear the women from the East Gorge have fair, tender skin, hehe.”

Leech couldn’t help but smile. It seemed that while the East Gorge People called those from other regions Barbarians, they had earned a nickname in return.

But searching his memory of the nobles he knew, besides the late Guy Marvin, he really couldn’t recall anyone who acted like a pansy.

The door was pushed open.

A group of Knights who looked more like desert bandits entered. They wore iron-studded leather armor, scimitars hung from their waists, and their heads were wrapped in turbans. Even their beards were full of fine, golden sand.

Even after seeing Leech and the fully armed Corpse Ghost Guard behind him, the sneers on their faces did not fade.

”Silence!” Baron Jin Fu commanded in a low voice.

The men quieted down but continued to stare provocatively at the guards behind Leech.

’It’s hard to say whether Baron Jin Fu’s anger this time was a deliberate act.’

The Desert Knights took their seats one by one. Intimidated by Baron Jin Fu’s authority, they actually fell silent.

”Eat!”

The crowd reached for the bread and roasted chicken, drinking wine. Although everyone was eating with their hands, the Desert People were indeed cruder than the East Gorge People.

However, the roasted chicken was heavily seasoned with spices, and its rich aroma could be smelled from a distance.

Leech started by popping a few dates into his mouth.

Sweet!

He tried another.

Very sweet!

And another.

Sickeningly sweet!

For someone like Leech, who had abundant material resources, the need for sweetness wasn’t high.

He added sugar to his tea and pastries, ate fruits, and so on. He could get his fill of sugar from many sources, so he didn’t need this cloying sweetness to satisfy his palate. This kind of sweet just felt overwhelming.

But for ordinary people, sweetness is the most important flavor for satisfying the body’s cravings. The desire for sweetness is instinctual.

No wonder people flocked to dates. After tasting three, he could already understand why.

But after those few, Leech didn’t dare to eat any more, lest the cloying sweetness make him feel queasy. He ate some bread with a roasted chicken leg to cut through the sweetness in his mouth. Although the chicken wasn’t cooked with much skill, the generous use of spices made it taste quite good.

After lunch.

As the servants were clearing the bowls, Leech asked, ”Lord Adari, I hear you also have a spice village that produces spices?”

He had actually tasted them in the roasted chicken just now: chili, fennel, and cumin.

Spices, something even ordinary nobles in the East Gorge wouldn’t dare to enjoy extravagantly, were even known as ”black gold.”

Just as a barrel of honey could cause two village-level minor lords to go to war, the price of spices was even more outrageous. According to what Leech knew, one pound of spices was worth 100 Silver Moon in the Bonta market.

In the East Gorge, someone like Leech who had merchant friends could get spices a bit cheaper, but they were still priced in Jinri. Even though the official exchange rate was 1 Jinri = 100 Silver Moon, there were always ways for people to get a better rate. The official price was just a reference that no one really followed.

Spices passed through numerous territories, and taxes were the biggest expense.

Not to mention the cost of transportation.

However, Leech didn’t have to worry about so many headaches. Whether the route was from the Bonta market through the gorge to Waterfall Land, then on to Iron Valley before shipping by boat to Porcupine Territory for export, or from Waterfall Land to his maternal grandfather’s Linta Bay, or to the Three-fork River, or to Burning City—he could get significant tariff reductions on all of them.

That was why merchants like Deni and Claude couldn’t lower their prices, even if they sold the spices at their true cost.

”That’s right!” Baron Jin Fu said with a smile.

Although he had been assigned to a marginal location, he was actually doing quite well for himself by relying on his spice village and Date Palm Village.

Spices were like gold; demand always outstripped supply. As long as they were produced, there was no worry they wouldn’t sell.

And dates provided the sugar that ordinary Desert People desperately needed, so they sold just as quickly.

”I wonder if you’d be interested in doing some business?” Leech asked.

In the Bonta market, spices could sell for 100 Silver Moon per pound, so Baron Jin Fu’s own selling price was certainly lower—the middlemen had to make a profit, after all. Leech estimated the Baron’s price was between 60 and 80 Silver Moon.

Selling spices truly was a source of exorbitant profits.

Leech was short on cash right now. Buying spices for 100 Silver Moon and selling them in the East Gorge for 1 Jinri would allow him to make a massive profit.

And if the profits were large enough, Baron Jin Fu would surely be unwilling to sell his spices to other merchants anymore.

The most crucial point was that Leech could use this to revitalize his two territories in the East Gorge. His foundation was in the East Gorge, not the desert.

Sure enough, Baron Jin Fu’s eyes narrowed, and his expression immediately shifted to a cordial smile. But no matter how one looked at it, the smile resembled a hyena baring its teeth at its prey.

In the end, they settled on a price of 100 Silver Moon per pound.

With the prospect of the spice trade between them, Baron Jin Fu’s attitude toward Leech immediately became much more enthusiastic.

Afternoon.

On the outskirts of Date Palm Village was an arena.

Leech and Baron Jin Fu sat above in a viewing area shaded by an awning.

The circular arena was surrounded by villagers.

This was the official reason for Leech and Kuer’s visit to Baron Jin Fu’s territory.

A deathmatch.

The environment was crude and the viewing platform was too close to the arena floor, but the onlookers were in high spirits, a stark contrast to the numb-faced villagers Leech had seen when he first arrived in Date Palm Village at noon.

Leech and Baron Jin Fu sat in the main seats, a small table before them laden with fine wine and fruit. The main offering was, once again, dates. Unlike at lunch, however, these were fresh, not dried.

He picked up a date and put it in his mouth. It wasn’t very juicy, but it was crisp.

An astringent taste followed, though it wasn’t unpleasant.

’A bit like a persimmon.’

Leech had a fairly high tolerance for different fruits, but he found it strange to chat and laugh while watching people fight to the death.

Even though he had killed many people himself, he could never treat killing as a game.

”Lord Leech, do you have deathmatches in the East Gorge?” Baron Jin Fu asked, turning to his side.

”We have Knight tournaments,” Leech said.

Kuer, sitting nearby, seized the opportunity to add, ”Lord Leech is the champion of the East Gorge Knight tournaments.”

Baron Jin Fu seemed uninterested and offered a casual compliment.

Though he had heard of Leech’s reputation, he didn’t think it was anything special. It was like an ordinary person on Earth hearing about a child prodigy from a foreign continent who was admitted to a prestigious university before the age of ten. Their first reaction would be to think the kid was impressive, but that would be immediately followed by other questions: What country was that continent in? And what made that university so prestigious?

The flow of information on the Lu Leiyi Continent was even more restricted than on Earth, if not more so.

Information traveled entirely on foot. For instance, the journey from Porcupine Territory to Iron Stone City was only a day long, but in the eyes of ordinary people, they were two different worlds.

A title like Leech’s tournament championship would, at most, be talked about in the East Gorge and among a few nobles in other regions.

In Baron Jin Fu’s eyes, a Knight tournament was like a flock of peacocks shaking their feathers—a show of empty posturing.

To him, a competition where no one died was pointless.

”A deathmatch is different,” Baron Jin Fu said. ”You’ll understand when you see it with your own eyes. It’s quite interesting.”